Jaguar Land Rover sales tumble despite ‘record order book’. Here's why

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), in a regulatory filing, revealed that its global sales had taken a substantial tumble of 37 per cent in the April-June quarter despite the company having a ‘record order book’. Demand for its models, says the company, is strong but challenges existing due to the prevailing global chip shortage and Covid-induced lockdowns in China have been squarely blamed.

JLR, a subsidiary of Tata group, has informed its order book by the end of last month was at nearly 200,000 units but sales were down by 48 per cent for the Jaguar brand and by nearly 33 per cent for Land Rover. “Despite a record order book, sales continue to be constrained by the global chip shortage, compounded by the run out of the prior model Range Rover Sport, with deliveries just starting, and the impact of Covid lockdowns in China," the company informed.

China is a crucial market for JLR and most other automotive brands operating here, both because of manufacturing processes here and the market demand. Lockdowns here, therefore, hurt global prospects for brands particularly hard.

But the path ahead may be less challenging for JLR because it claims that demand for models like Defender, the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport is quite strong. The Jaguar brand is also being re-positioned as a luxury EV name by 2025 with i-Pace leading the path forward, apart from other battery-powered models being in the plans. Overall, the company is looking at bringing an end to sales of vehicles powered by combustion engines by 2036. It is an ambitious move but one that is firmly banked on expectations that the global preference would be firmly in favour of EVs over the next decade or so.

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